Bible Strands
Genesis 1:14
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to distinguish between the day and the night, and let them be signs to mark the seasons and days and years.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks in the fourth day of creation, immediately after the close of the third (Gen 1:13). No addressee is named; the command is issued directly.
The words — מְאֹרֹת (me'orot), "luminaries" or "shining ones," from the root 'ar (to shine), specifies the kind of light: not mere illumination but bodies that shine. This is the subject of the command, not a generic "lights."
The thread — Psalms 104:19 and 74:16 echo the functional assignment (marking seasons, establishing day and night), while Deuteronomy 4:19 draws the boundary: these same luminaries are not to be bowed down to. The thread runs from purposeful creation to the warning against idolatry.
Why it lands — The verse gives the luminaries a job, not a status. A reader is asked to hold both truths at once: they are good and purposeful, and they are subordinate.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Cross-references
- Psalms 104:19 He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows when to set.
- Deuteronomy 4:19 When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars—all the host of heaven—do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
- Psalms 74:16 The day is Yours, and also the night; You established the moon and the sun.
- Psalms 148:3 Praise Him, O sun and moon; praise Him, all you shining stars.
- Jeremiah 31:35 Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day, who sets in order the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD of Hosts is His name:
- Psalms 136:7 He made the great lights—His loving devotion endures forever.
- Psalms 8:3 When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place—
- Psalms 148:6 He established them forever and ever; He issued a decree that will never pass away.
- Amos 5:8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD is His name—
- Joel 3:15 The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will no longer shine.